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Senate adjourns for summer, leaving Michigan roads unfunded

Michigan senators on Thursday night ended any hope advocates, business groups and motorists had for approval this summer of additional road funding by the Legislature.

At the end of a 10-hour session Thursday, the state Senate tried and failed to advance a bill that would have raised $32 million next year for roads. The day before, it spent the better part of 15 hours trying and failing multiple times to corral votes for a $1.5 billion roads package.

But when the fallback option failed Thursday night, the Republican-led Senate gave in and adjourned, leaving town to begin a 12-week summer vacation.

After the first and only attempt of the night went down on a 17-20 vote, Richardville cast blame on Democrats for voting in unison against it. He also cast blame, as he has before, on the gas tax increase approved in 1997 under then-Gov. John Engler, because it was never indexed to inflation. If it had been, the road funding problem today would not exist, Richardville said.

Talking with reporters, Richardville said they will convene a work group and continue to talk, and noted there is additional money in the budget this year that will go toward road so there will be money available for construction season.

Democrats said blame rested with Richardville and Gov. Rick Snyder, who were unable to convince enough Republicans in the Senate to vote in support, where they have a supermajority of 26 members. It takes 20 votes to pass a bill in the Senate.

Snyder was unfazed at the end of the night and remained his trademark positive self.

“Progress is being made,” Snyder said. “Let’s look on the bright side – we’ve moved closer to getting a long-term solution in place.”

Behind-the-scenes

Despite no formal action on the floor during the day on roads, there was plenty of work going on behind the scenes and drama on the floor when a top Republican walked off in disgust and left the Capitol in the middle of the proceedings, leaving the GOP without a crucial vote on bills for the rest of the evening.

Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw Township, emerged from a caucus meeting and went to the microphone and called for adjournment, seemingly to the surprise of his leadership. Staff and other members scrambled to see what was going on, but the motion failed and session continued.

Kahn then walked off the floor, declined to talk to reporters and left the building, not voting on subsequent bills.

His absence quickly became an issue, because it takes 26 votes to allow a bill to take effect upon the governor’s signature, but with Kahn gone, the Republicans only had 25 votes.

Richardville defended Kahn after session. “He’s tired, he’s pushing 70 years old and deserves a pat on the back more than anything else,” Richardville said. “The man has really done an incredible job here, and if he needed to go, I’m OK with that.”

But with the vote so close the day before on the roads package, something Kahn had been supportive of, it was one less vote the GOP had in trying to approve the gas tax plan.

What the GOP ultimately came up with Thursday night would have raised $32.2 million in the upcoming fiscal year, and eventually raising $306 million by 2020 over what would be raised if only the current 19 cent tax remained in place.

It would do so by keeping in place the 19 cents gas tax at the pump but adding to it an inflationary factor.

Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing, blasted the bill, saying it was too little to make a difference when the problem of the state’s roads is so large.

On Wednesday when the GOP was still trying to pass a comprehensive gas tax increase plan, more than half of her 12-member caucus was prepared to vote in favor, but there were still not enough Republican votes to see it pass.

“My caucus stepped up and made those tough votes,” she said.

But Whitmer’s caucus voted against the GOP bill Thursday because she said they wanted to vote on something that would result in actually fixing the roads, not on such a small measure.

Instead, the Senate Democrats promoted their own plan to raise about $1.6 billion for the roads by raising the Corporate Income Tax rate from 6 percent to 8 percent, by moving to a wholesale gas tax and by eliminating the vehicle-value depreciation on registration fees.

Their plan would lower Michigan’s highest-in-the-nation truck weights by 10,000 pounds per year for three years. The weight limit for trucks now is 164,000 pounds. They also would seek to double fees charged for overweight trucks and charge a $50 fee on all overweight permits, with that revenue dedicated to keeping open weigh stations to enforce the truck weight law.

Richardville mocked the Democrats' plan, saying it was just something they came up with recently and had never introduced legislation to make it happen. He also noted that it relied on several bills introduced by Republicans.

“It’s way too little, way too late,” Richardville said.

Looking for more positive

Earlier in the day, Snyder addressed the media on passage of the state budget and also addressed the road funding impasse, saying he would not be satisfied with a revenue neutral proposal, but would at least see it as progress toward the larger goal.

He also had still not given up hope on a deal later Thursday afternoon, which was not long after Whitmer told reporters there was no chance there would be a deal on a comprehensive road funding plan based on her talks with Republicans.

“Today’s not over,” Snyder said mid-afternoon Thursday.

Snyder looked to find the positive in the failed votes from the night before, saying it was farther than the Legislature had moved in the past and said members were actively talking about the issues, but he also recognized it was a difficult issue that was trying to be solved in an election year.

“We’re going to continue on a path of positive progress,” he said. “It still needs some time to coalesce to get a total solution.”